Chapter 3: Everyone Has Issues
Cyborg's vision was finally returning to him, and a light switch was turned on right above him. It made a loud clicking noise and shone directly on Cyborg and a little could be seen around him. He blinked as he woke. He felt as though he had just woken up from a long, deep sleep. His mechanical eye, almost immediately reached 100 clear, while his right eye came into complete vision and the blurriness was finally lifted.
He sat up and looked around. His teammates were passed out all over the floor in front of him. The floor was made out of cold, hard stone and the walls were black because of the lack of light. Suddenly, the clicking sound returned and all the lights began to turn on one after one until both rows of lights were shining and the whole room could be seen. It was a vast room, almost like a dinner hall. The walls were plain white and the ceiling had steel bars sprouting from every end, making a strong resemblance to a warehouse ceiling.
The other Titans were still passed out over the floor. Raven was lying on her back in an almost perfect sleeping position. Robin was sprawled all over the floor. Starfire was snoring loudly and Beast Boy was drooling.
At the very end of the hall stood a small stage where Cyborg could faintly spy a black figure. He closed his right eye and zoomed in with his left. It was then when he saw who was standing on the stage looking triumphant. He had the same smile as the last time he had encountered him.
"We meet again Cyborg. Atlas has been longing for a rematch," he said with his smirk never leaving his face.
Robin's eyes began to open slightly as he awoke from his slumber. He noticed where he was and bolted upright and had a shocked face and his eyes widened.
"Where are we? How did we get here? I thought I heard Atlas. Is he here? Cause we can take him. Where is he? Cyborg, where's Atlas? Cybor-," Robin was cut off be his awoken teammates all staring at him sleepily, but puzzled.
Robin became quiet at this sight and looked around and saw no Cyborg. Robin got up, and after seeing their leader do it, the rest of the team arose. They began to walk down the hall.
"Robin, where is Cyborg and Atlas? You say you have heard the voice of the Atlas?" Starfire said a little confused.
"Yea, we didn't hear anything. Except for your loud ramblings," Raven said with an annoyed tone in her voice.
"Don't worry about that. I did hear Atlas, but we have to find Cyborg first," Robin replied without looking back.
They finally came up to the stage at the end of the hall. They climbed up onto it and began to look around for any clues to where Cyborg was.
Robin held up a small computer chip to his face and said, "Cyborg was here. Look around."
But, before they could look around, They looked behind themselves and saw four doors next to each other on the wall.
"Maybe we could look in those rooms. If we do in the one farthest to the right and continue down through all the others, I'm sure we'll find him," Beast Boy suggested.
"We don't have the time. Everyone take there own door. We'll have to split up," Robin told them.
Before they could argue against the plan, Robin already entered the room farthest to the left. Then Raven entered the room on the right side of Robin's door, and Starfire entered the one next to Ravens. And finally Beast Boy entered the one farthest to the right. As soon as they left into the rooms, the doors just disappeared without the Titans noticing, there was no way out!
Meanwhile, Cyborg was all alone in a strange room. It was made entirely of computer machinery. It had a high ceiling and a small floor-area. It was shaped like a cylinder.
"Hey! Atlas! Get your butt back here! Where did you take me? Hello? Atlas?" Cyborg shouted as his voice echoed throughout the tall, but small room.
No one responded. So, Cyborg turned his back and began to search for an exit. He searched and searched until he could not find an opening. It seemed to him that he should just give up until someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Alright Atlas. Your gonna show me the way to get outta he-," he said while turning around and realizing that it was not Atlas who had tapped his shoulder.
"Cyborg. Long time no see. I hope you haven't forgotten the last time we met. It's been so long, my friend," Brother Blood said.
The red technology that Professor Chang had implanted him with was glowing more than usual. He also put in some new arms, and yet, they looked like his old mechanical ones.
"Speechless? Yes, I would be too If I were in the situation you are in now," Brother Blood said smiling while he punched Cyborg in the face.
The room Robin had entered seemed very peculiar, and yet, at the same time, very familiar. The walls, floor, and ceiling were black. White lines went all around the room. They did not form diagonally though, they were just straight. At some points, two lines would even intersect or become one.
A rope fell from the ceiling in the middle of the room. And down came Red X.
At this sight, Robin immediately drew out his bo staff. Red X was almost at the ground when he jumped off and the rope withdrew back up to the ceiling. Red X took out his duel X hand blades and blocked Robin's attack with them. They back flipped to opposite sides of the room ready for another attack.
"You've gotten better, Robin," Red X said.
"Yes, I have and you won't get away this time," Robin said as he flew back towards him for another attack.
Just as Robin was about to swing his bo staff downwards towards Red X, he surprised him by throwing exploding disks. Rex X covered his head with his arms as explosions occurred all around him. The place where Red X stood was now covered in smoke.
Once the smoke had cleared, Red X was no longer there.
"Looking for me," he said from behind Robin.
Robin turned and slashed his bo staff, but Red X jumped off of it and kick landed Robin in the face.
The room Raven had entered was not even a room! It was just space filled with red and white stars. There were a few flat stone pieces levitating by themselves scattered across the so-called "room." It looked exactly the same as the inside of Raven's mind.
Raven began to walk forward and out of nowhere a figure immerged straight out of the ground in front of her. It was none other than her own evil side! There stood red-cloaked Raven with her two pairs of eyes staring viciously into Raven's.
"Azarath Metrion Zintho-," Raven said and then was cut off by her evil side uttering the same spell and hurling rocks towards her.
Raven quickly created black shields in front of herself by moving her hands in parallel direction.
"You won't break through again," Raven said while throwing some huge boulders at her evil side.
"Let rage consume you," said the red-cloaked Raven.
Her evil side had gotten the best of her. Evil Raven stopped the boulders, pulled up a tree and hurled them all at Raven using telekinesis.
Raven was thrown aback. She fell onto the floating cliff right under the previous one she was on. Raven got up and began to run. There was a slim chance she would be able to beat herself!
Starfire's room locked remarkably like Tamaran. The skies were pink and purple and the ground was the same color as well. Starfire was puzzled. She began to walk around until she heard someone's voice.
"Hello Sister," Blackfire said while she began to reach the ground behind Starfire.
Without even saying anything, Starfire charged her starbolts and tackled her sister in rage. Blackfire was hit to the ground. Starfire was upright, getting ready for a second attack.
"You'll have to do better than that," Blackfire said while getting up and hurling two starbolts at Starfire, sending her flying to the ground like Blackfire had just did.
Starfire became enraged and charged her hands to be ready for another attack.
Beast Boy's room resembled the underground sewers the most. He walked straight through the muck water until he reached a point where the tunnel divides into two.
"Now which way should I go? Einey, Meaney, Miney-," Beast Boy said but was cut off by a weird and loud growl.
"MO!" said an immense, shadowy creature behind him.
It had grabbed Beast Boy and threw him down one of the sewer passages. Once in the light, Beast Boy could see that it was his own "evil" side, the green Were-Beast he had once become.
The Beast began to thrash and flail his arms all over in an awkward manner. Some of his attempts were successful and when that moment came, he would smack Beast Bot around a bit. Beast Boy couldn't take it anymore. He transformed into a Rhinoceros and charged straight towards the Were-Beast's chest. He was thrown into the wall directly behind him. At this, the Were-Beast became very mad and began to chase Beast Boy like a giant ape with it's hands acting as extra legs. He was hoping to tackle Beast Boy, but Beast Boy was too fast.
Beast Boy was getting out of breath. He transformed into a cheetah and then a pterodactyl and then into a buffalo until he could no longer run and the Were-Beast came from behind and tackled him, like a football player, into the wall in front of him.
The fight between Cyborg and Brother Blood raged on. Cyborg blasted him with his Sonic Cannon only to find out that Brother Blood had one too. As the red sonic beam was about to hit Cyborg, he moved and shot a blue one in replace that took out a chunk of Brother Blood's shoulder.
"You'll pay for that!" Brother Blood said while his eyes glowed red and he sent red beams from the tips of his fingers.
Cyborg blocked and began to rip apart Brother Blood until, all of a sudden, he just disappeared. He was gone, just like that. A door had appeared behind Cyborg and he began to walk to it.
"This is one of Atlas' games no doubt," Cyborg said to himself while he entered the door.
Disks flew. X's flopped. It was a complete chaos of gadgets as Red X and Robin fought. Bo staff against X blades. Hand-to-hand combat. They fought skillfully as if they knew each other's moves and when they were to make them. They were completely in-sync.
Robin through some freeze disks and before he knew it, Red X's legs and arms were frozen. He was caught off guard!
Robin approached him and said, "So, now we finally get to see who you are."
Robin reached for the mask and slowly pulled it off. Robin was shocked, the face behind the mask had another mask, but it was much smaller, only covering his eyes. He had black spiky hair. He was Robin.
Robin fell to the ground on his knees. This whole thing made him remember the terrible thing he did. He could not stand it anymore. He dropped the Red X mask and it shattered on the ground, and when Robin looked up, Red X was gone.
Raven was running as fast as she could, but her evil side was following her, by hovering over her. She could not concentrate, her powers were useless. That was it. She had to concentrate. Keep her emotions in check. She has to calm down, control her emotions, center herself…
She put her hood over her head and began to close her eyes and meditate…
…
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
…
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
…
Once she opened her eyes, her evil side was nowhere to be seen. She had left. A door appeared on the ground and Raven opened it and entered it.
Starfire threw starbolts at her sister. Blackfire shot eyebeams at her sister. They both aggressively attacked each other, showing no mercy towards each other. Starfire threw Blackfire into the Tamaranean Castle and Blackfire shot eyebeams at Starfire, throwing her to the ground.
They exchanged punches and kicks and after Starfire had thrown Blackfire into the castle multiple times, it finally fell down on top of her.
"Forgive me sister," Starfire said as she went through the door that had just appeared.
Beast Boy ran down through the tunnel being followed by the Were-Beast. He needed to know how to beat him. He was hoping the answer would just fall out of the sky. He looked up… And found his answer!
He immediately transformed into a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Were-Beast caught up and they began to stomp all over the place until the ceiling of the sewer collapsed on top of the Were-Beast. Only his head stuck out of the rubble, but it soon disappeared.
"Yes! I won! Go, Beast Boy. Go Beas-," Beast Boy said while doing a little dance.
"Wow. Where's your video camera when you need it?" Raven said.
She was accompanied by the other Titans who seemingly walked through the door that just appeared. Beast Boy was embarrassed, but thankfully, before Raven could mock him more, a voice began to talk as if out of nowhere.
"You may have dealt with my computer simulated counterparts, but the real challenger is just beginning," Atlas said and jumped down the whole in the ceiling Beast Boy made.
Atlas grabbed the Titans and jumped up through the hole. They were in the plain room they began in. The hole magically sealed itself.
Atlas threw the Titans and said, "Now you must now defeat Atlas. As you can see, Atlas did his homework and found out all about your biggest fears and issues. It's too bad you were able to defeat them. But, Atlas won't be as easy."
Atlas' arm transformed into a cannon and began to fire a large red beam. He moved his cannon arm, which moved the beam around.
Robin shouted, "Titans Go!" and the Titans jumped to dodge the beam and began to split up.
"HA!" Starfire shouted as she threw starbolts at Atlas' face, but he merely but his hand in front of it to prevent from getting hit in the head.
Beast Boy transformed into a bear and charged towards one of Atlas' legs.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," Raven said while telekinetically hurling a handful of metal beams from the ceiling at Atlas.
Robin threw many electrical disks at Atlas' torso and Cyborg blasted his Sonic Cannon at him.
Suddenly, Atlas said, "That's enough," and clear, orange circle encasements surrounded all the Titans, "Now there shall be no more interference."
"I have to warn you I have gotten better," Cyborg said in a triumphant voice.
Atlas merely laughed and said, "You just make Atlas laugh. You could never do any damage."
Cyborg readied his cannon and shot a sonic blast and Atlas did the same. They were both trying to over power each other. Atlas' blast was stronger and then Cyborg's was. Atlas' was stronger again and then Cyborg's was again. They were both equal, but Cyborg had a plan. He saw a strong electrical outlet. Cyborg gave in and let the blast hit him. He went flying to the ground in the corner.
"Haha. This is most amusing for Atlas," Atlas said while laughing.
"Oh yeah. Well I learned a new trick since the last time we met. Boo-yah!" Cyborg said.
His back opened up and five long electrical cords plugged into the wall. A huge battery emerged from his back and a vision amplifier placed itself over his mechanical eye. His arms extended into two long power generators. He used this on Slade when he was to take Raven to Trigon.
"Think of this as a compliment. I only did this once before," Cyborg said while his arms charged themselves and blasted straight at Atlas.
After the blast hit, Cyborg's enhancements went back to normal and he fell to the ground, out of breath. His friends were freed and they came over to congradulate him.
"Glorious! You did a great job at the kicking of the Atlas' butt." Starfire said while puching the air and smiling.
"Yeah, you did a great job Cyborg. We won't have to worry about Atlas ever again," Robin said.
"No," Cyborg said in an upset voice, "He w was able to move before the blast hit him. He got away."
His teammates looked disappointed, but Cyborg said, "At least my Turbo armor worked again! I really thought I'd be defeated! It was a 50/50 percent chance that it was to work, and it did!"
Cyborg looked happy, so his teammates smiled back at him even though Atlas had gotten away.